


and did you see the void in the past?

by youngshramles



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Green Lantern - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Anxiety, Batfamily (DCU) Feels, CEO Tim Drake, Comic Book Science, Depression, F/M, Falling In Love, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Injury, Teen Romance, Tim Drake Has Issues, but they get solved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25459540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngshramles/pseuds/youngshramles
Summary: It's not easy having your father come back to life after he was stuck in the timestream.Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne has to juggle between being a CEO of a multi-billion conglomerate, dealing with his fractured family, and being a badass vigilante at night.Trouble arises when Scarecrow and friends decide to unleash a sinister plot against the citizens of Gotham. Tim has to figure out what the villains are up to and how to stop them.He might just find love and bring his family together again while he's at it.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake, Hal Jordan & Original Female Character(s), Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Tim Drake/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	1. PILOT

**Author's Note:**

> HI GUYS!! ok so this is my first fanfic ever and i would really appreciate it if you left kudos and/or constructive criticism! lmk what y'all think!! anyways i had a whole gif set thing for the people i imagined playing these character but i couldn't figure out how to put it here so I'm sorry! let me just say that christian bale=bruce wayne and brenton thwaites= dick grayson like oiahdawdh anyways I'm kinda getting off topic but i really hope you enjoyed this first chapter, I'm gonna update the second one soon! also idk how this works really so i'm kinda just making stuff up as i go. ALSO i have read a lot of comics but i might take things from different eras and mash them together? idk i have a pretty solid timeline of when things happen within the batman continuity and gl continuity but like relative to each other is just ????? so yeah! anyways wow this is getting long but i hope y'all are doing good in these trying times :)

Tim threw down the folder he was supposed to be reading for the last meeting of the day, which was in-he checked his overly expensive watch- half an hour. Totally enough time to grab a hot cup of coffee from the breakroom. His own personal coffee machine broke last week and he hadn’t had enough time to find a model that he liked and get it replaced, with his day and nightly activities. It seemed like every waking moment he was busy and had no time to relax. Whenever he was done with one of his projects or cases, another two popped up in its place.

He made a mental note to hand off the search of an adequate coffee maker to his assistant, even though he was really picky with his coffee. It was a necessary sacrifice, he already had too much on his plate. 

The trek down to the break room wasn’t that bad. It was a good way to stretch his legs and he nodded to some of the workers who smiled or waved at him. After the coffee was done brewing, he wrapped both hands around the warm cup. 

“Just one more meeting ‘til I get to go home,” He whispered to the cup, lifting it up to his lips. 

Leaning against the counter, he sipped his coffee, which was brewed to perfection in his opinion. This coffee machine wasn’t that bad, he could get the same exact one for his office. He let his mind wander to the current case he was working, which was puzzling even him at the moment. Bruce had given to him personally, and he felt an obligation to wrap it up as soon as possible, but that was proving difficult when Scarecrow modified his venom to control his victims through fear, instead of torturing them with it. Now he had to figure out an antidote to the toxin, which had killed all of the people it had hit, and what his end goal was. He could tell something big was going to go down, and it was stressing him out when all his leads were literally dead ends. His plan was to go home and work the case obsessively until he came up with a solution. He really wanted to wrap it up and put Scarecrow behind bars, as sort of a ‘welcome back to Gotham’ present to Bruce. 

He was running on 4 hours of restless sleep he somehow managed to get and was thinking over the Scarecrow situation which is what he blamed for what happened next. He was walking to his office, coffee in hand, when he literally bodied a small person. The cup fell from his grasp and spilled all over the floor- and the girl he ran into. She was rubbing her forehead, which came up to the bottom of his chin. He must've stabbed her with his chin. Yikes. 

Tim took a step back and took it in. She was dressed in a simple white button down shirt, which had a huge coffee stain on it now, and a black pencil skirt which came down to her knees. His eyes rose from her ruined shirt to her eyes, which were staring right back into his. He was taken aback by how young she looked, with her brown shoulder-length hair, and sharp features. She looked to be his age, maybe younger. He opened his mouth to speak, when she cut him off.

“I’m so sorry about that, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she rushed out, bending down to pick up the now-empty cup. She tossed it into a nearby trash can and then pinched her soaking wet shirt away from her body.

“No, I wasn’t paying attention either,” Tim sighed. He felt a pang of guilt since he was completely dry and she had to go about the rest of her day with a coffee stained shirt. Remembering all the spare dress shirts he kept in his desk, Tim made a decision. “Look, I’m really sorry about your shirt, but I have some extra shirts in my office if you want to change out. We’re about the same size, maybe they could fit you?” he offered.

Her eyes flicked up to meet his, seemingly startled. “Are you sure? I don’t want to impose, but it would be really nice to not have to wear this,” she gestured at her shirt “for my next meeting .”

“Yeah, it’s no problem at all,” Tim says, beginning to walk up to his office. He groaned inwardly, he wouldn’t have enough time to read over the information packet he was supposed to. Bruce would be disappointed at his lack of preparation. “ It was my coffee, so it’s only fair.”

Her face broke out in a smile. “Thank you so much, you’re a lifesaver” she gushed, speeding up to catch up with him. “ I mean I have extra clothes in my car, but the parking garage is so far away, and I would definitely be late to my meeting.” she explained as he opened the large mahogany door to his personal office. Tim went over to his desk and opened a large drawer at the bottom, where his spare office clothes were. He grabbed a simple white button down and walked it over to the girl, who now stood a couple feet away from him. 

“Here, I hope this…” he trailed off as she turned around and began taking off her shirt, right in front of him. “ … fits” He finished awkwardly, averting his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of gauze, and realized half her torso was bandaged. 

He decided not to say anything about it, it wasn’t any of his business to ask. 

“Sorry” she breathed out, buttoning up his shirt. “ I have to get to this thing a couple minutes early, it’s super important and I’m pretty much late already.” she tucked it into her skirt and smoothed it out. Tim noticed the shoulders were big on her. She turned back to face him holding up her soiled shirt. “Is it ok if I leave this here and pick it up later?”.

Tim had barely nodded, before she was hustling out the door. He shook his head and sat down to skim over the file with the five minutes he had left. As he was going over it, he realized he had never gotten her name.

  
  
  


Imagine his surprise when he walked into the oh-so important last meeting of the day, and there she was,wearing his shirt, sitting next a surly middle aged man with slicked back blonde hair and an intense aura around him. He was startled for a split second, but then he pasted his “Timothy Drake-Wayne” smile on his face and pulled out a chair opposite them. The man and girl both rose to shake his hand over the table and introduce themselves. 

“Theo Hale, and this is my daughter and assistant Aria Hale,” he smiled sharply, and shook Tim’s hand with a crushing grip. The girl, now identified as Aria, shook his hand too, and when he looked at her face, he could tell she was startled too, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. 

“Pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Drake-Wayne,” Aria spoke over their handshake, her eyes creasing upwards. Tim snorted inwardly.

“Believe me, the pleasure is all mine,” He said pleasantly, and then the meeting began.

  
  
  


Turns out Hale Industries had programmed a chip that allowed a connection to the human brain and they wanted Wayne Tech to back them up, so that their product could be mass produced. Tim didn’t think it was a half bad idea, based on what he read in the file. They haggled out the fine print of the contract, since the base was already set up by previous meetings by the Hales and Wayne Tech lawyers. Now they just needed both CEO’s to sign on the dotted line. The agreement was to set up a division dedicated to refining and creating at Wayne Entreprises. As part of the contract, Miss Hale would be left behind to oversee the department and monitor their progress. 

Apparently Aria personally helped develop the tech, which was impressive to Tim. It’s not everyday you see people her age get involved with biomedical technology. He suspected Aria was something of a genius, based on her involvement and the way Theo Hale tried to downplay her work. Theo Hale was a piece of work, in Tim’s opinion. The man was cold and shark-like, and he could already tell the shrewd businessman had an ego. Tim definitely needed more coffee to deal with him.

Soon, they were wrapping it up, with everything finalized. By then it had already been a couple of hours and Tim was aching to go home to catch up with his nightlife. He stood and extended his hand to Hale. The Hales stood and Theo wrapped his arm around his daughter, his hand around her waist. And that’s when he saw her flinch. To anyone else it would have seemed natural, but Tim’s trained eyes caught it. He realized that he had grabbed her where, from what he had seen earlier today, she was heavily bandaged. He narrowed his eyes, saving that information away for later. Theo shook his hand, and the meeting was over. 

  
  
  


Back at his nest, Tim suited up. He called up his data on Scarecrow’s case while pulling his cowl on. The results that blinked up at him were devastatingly sparse. He grit his teeth. He needed more information than just hearsay to go on. He had a pretty good idea of what was happening, just no concrete details. Scarecrow was injecting his victims with a modified version of the fear toxin, which allowed Scarecrow to command them for a certain period of time, before the strain on their bodies were too much and they died. 

It made sense that every person had an amount of time where they were guaranteed to survive and then they start succumbing to the strain depending on their mental strength. Scarecrow would have to make his operations short enough to fit that window of time. Tim’s guess was that after 2 hours of being injected, it would start to become fatal. That irked him, because he hadn’t made an antidote, not for lack of trying. Tim suspected he needed the toxin in its pure form, since it seemed to mutate beyond salvation when introduced to red blood cells. He needed to get to Scarecrow and shut the whole operation down, but it’s very possible that Scarecrow is working with a partner who would continue the mission even if Scarecrow got arrested. 

This sucked. He hadn’t been able to save any of the victims, with all the thugs being dead on arrival. He had let countless people die because of his inability to figure the problem out. That weighed on him heavily, pushing him to finish the case as soon as possible. Bruce would have done better, he would be so disappointed. His best bet was to tag Scarecrow and follow him to his potential partners. Easier said than done, it had been next to impossible to locate Scarecrow. He needed to find the man as soon as possible… 

Tim let out a sigh and got to work. He considered asking for help but shut that idea down instantly. His family was messed up at the moment. Bruce was catching up with what happened while he was lost in the time stream, and would need more time to go over everything that had happened. New gangs, buildings and alliances had popped up while the original Batman was gone and he couldn’t risk going out on the street without that knowledge. That’s why Tim was still CEO of his father’s company. 

Jason, who still wasn’t on speaking terms with Bruce and Dick, was doing his own thing over in his part of Crime Alley. He occasionally hit up Tim with casework and sometimes just to chat. It was ironic that Jason was closest to the person that he had to tried to murder countless times, but hey, Tim wasn’t complaining. Jason was a pretty cool big brother when he wasn’t batshit insane. Or rather, when he wasn’t under the influence of the Lazarus pit. 

Speaking of big brothers, Tim was still pissed at Dick for giving Robin to Damian, pretty much throwing Tim away, and for calling him crazy when he said that Bruce was alive. The man had literally started a fight with Tim while he was trying to prove himself right. Then when Bruce turned out to actually be alive, he’d tried to pretend like nothing happened. Tim didn’t hate Dick for what happened, he’d just rather not get emotional whiplash, with how quickly Dick turned on him, again. It’s not like he still saw Dick everyday either. He had moved back to Bludhaven, and Tim had his own home in Gotham. 

Stephanie was busy studying for her finals, Cass was in Hong Kong. Damian… well… he’d rather not. He wasn’t going to ask the Titans for help with cases in Gotham, for all the reasons.

It’s okay, he’d figure it out on his own, he always did. This time would be no different, even though he could feel himself being pulled apart at the seams. He was exhausted with running Wayne Enterprises in the daytime and Red Robin at night. Between those two things he barely got any sleep. That left hanging out with Stephanie, his best friend and ex-girlfriend, out of the question. He missed her and Cass… 

Suddenly there was a ping from the computer that brought him out of his self reflection . Tim sat up, and with a few taps, he sent the location to his Redbird. Scarecrow was currently hunkered down at a warehouse in Crime Alley. That was Jason’s territory. Tim considered letting him know and then decided against it. It would be recon only. He checked his belts and made sure everything was in place, before he hopped on Redbird and sped out.

On the way there, his comm chimed signaling a call from his personal cell. The automated voice announced that it was from Tam. He usually didn’t pick up personal calls as Red Robin, but what if she was in trouble? “Yes?” he grunted, leaning forward on his bike.

“Hey Drake, there’s a Miss Aria Hale, saying that she left a … shirt in your office?” Tam asked on the line, making it short and to the point. Tim started. It was 12:30 at night, what was Hale still doing there? 

“Escort her in to get it,” Tim said, over the wind whipping past him, and hung up. Tam knew about his night job, so she would understand if he was curt. Hopefully. He skidded to a stop a couple seconds later and dismounted. 

  
  
  


Tim went around the perimeter, silently disarming several guards with his bo and leaving them tied up and unconscious for the police to pick up. They didn’t seem to be under the toxin, which was good news. Grappling onto the roof, he easily picked his way through the couple guards stationed up top and slipped in through a skylight. He could immediately hear voices coming from below. One was undeniably Crane, and the other was slightly familiar. Perched up in the rafters, he made his way toward the voices. He saw vials upon vials of gas in crates, which he bet was the toxin. He would have to snag one as soon as possible. 

When he finally found Scarecrow, his partner was gone and it was just him. Tim did a quick scan of his surroundings. Scarecrow appeared to be alone, with his back up already taken out. There was only one ground entrance and exit, with several skylights in the ceiling. Tim made sure his rebreather was ready to go, and landed softly behind his target. As Crane was turning around, Tim disabled him with a couple of precise nerve strikes. He quickly handcuffed his hands together while alerting Gotham PD to his location.

“Well, if it isn’t Red Robin,” Crane purred in that sickly sounding voice of his. Tim ignored him. “What, I don’t even get a hello?” he went on, sounding mockingly hurt.

“Hello Doctor,” Tim said flatly, setting about looking for clues. He took one of the vials of toxin and stored it away securely. He considered blowing the crate up, but realized that the toxin would become airborne. Better to let the police deal with it.

“Don’t bother,” Scarecrow jibed through the ugly mask, watching him with beady eyes. “There is no antidote for that, I made sure of it. Once you get infected, you die from the fear,” he giggled. Tim grit his teeth. He was lying. There hadn’t been a toxin that didn’t have an antidote reverse engineered. He would figure it out.

Tim decided to ignore the taunts coming his way and focus on investigating instead. In the corner of the dimly lit warehouse, he found an old, rotting table, with schematics and a couple of hard drives strewn about. Tim grabbed the hard drives and took pictures of the schematics. He would cross reference them later to see what building they were for. He huffed to himself. The good doctor definitely wasn’t expecting him tonight. He busied himself checking over the entirety of the place, while keeping an eye on Crane. In the distance, he could hear sirens getting closer. Time to go. Tim pocketed the burner cell he was examining and headed for Redbird. He stayed until Scarecrow was taken in custody, and then left. 

Tim considered tonight a win, with all the evidence he had collected. He stored it in a hidden compartment in Redbird and did a quick patrol of his area. He stopped several muggings, one burglary, and three attempted rapes, then decided to call it a night and headed back to his Nest. 

As soon as he dismounted Redbird, he let out a sigh he didn’t know he was holding. Stripping out of his suit, he took a self inventory. His shoulder got wrenched and was throbbing, but he would just bandage that up and call it a day. One of Scarecrow’s thugs had gotten a lucky shank on him, which would probably need stitches. To be honest, Tim didn’t even notice it until now. He was exhausted but what else was new? He hastily stitched his abdomen up and grabbed takeout, ready to dive into unraveling the leads he found.

Tim attempted synthesizing an antidote right away, but it would take some time for it to finish. While he was waiting for the potential antidote to complete, he started working with the phone. He realized that it was too heavily encrypted, even for him. Sheesh, who was programming phones for Scarecrow? It was like the Great Wall of China times two. The hard drives probably had the same type of encryption, which means he would have to figure out the key before he could crack them. He banged his head on his keyboard. He would have to get Oracle on this. Reluctantly, Tim opened up a channel to the Clock Tower. 

“O? You there?” Tim ventured.

“What can I do, Red?” Came the instant reply. Tim got straight to the point, knowing Barbara was on-duty and probably monitoring everyone in the field. 

“I recovered a burner and some hard drives off Scarecrow, and they’re too heavily encrypted.” 

“You can’t break through?” Barbara sounded surprised. Tim agreed with her. He was losing his touch.

“I mean, I could figure it out if I had more time, but I’m caught up in some other stuff. Would you mind?” Tim sighed, rubbing his face.

“Yeah, for sure RR. Make sure you get some rest though, you sound exhausted.” Barbara said firmly, with her no nonsense voice. “The company and Red Robin can take a backseat to you.”

“I will once I get this case solved,” promised Tim, breaking off into a yawn, proving her statement right. He needed more coffee. “Just have a bunch of things happening right now.”

“Make sure you do. Also, can I ask for a big favor?” Barbara went on. Tim blinked.

“Yeah?” he hummed, starting to flick through the pictures of the schematics he recovered.

“When you get the chance, can you please…” She trailed off. Tim’s curiosity peaked. “...Talk to N. He really misses you.” She said matter-of-factly. Tim’s anger flared up. She wanted him to talk to Dick, his supposed-big brother, who had basically forced him out of Robin, shut him down when he brought up the idea that Bruce was still alive, and pretty much said that Tim should be in Arkham. Like hell that was happening.

“Did he ask you to say that to me?” Tim demanded, running a hand through his hair. He realized that it was pretty long. He made another mental note to get it cut soon. He didn’t wait for her to respond. “I’m not going to talk to N, unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Tim bit out. He wanted to say more but if he let loose now , it would blow up in his face later.

“Okay, okay. Calm down Red. I was just saying, you probably should. For the family, you know?” Barbara assented. Tim laughed inwardly. What family? They were broken. 

“Thanks anyways, O. Please get back to me once you finished decoding the key,” Tim said flatly, going back to comparing schematics. His eyes widened. 

  
“Be careful Red. Oracle out,” Barbara closed the channel. Tim barely heard the chime signaling it . He was staring at the results on his display.  _ You have got to be fracking kidding me _ he thought. The schematics were for his office at Wayne Enterprises, and other high ranking employees, like Tam and Lucius. Well shit. Tim was right before. This sucked.


	2. well sometimes i am

Aria Hale was mortified. First, she had run into THE Timothy Drake-Wayne and managed to get coffee all over herself. Then she literally stripped in front of the ma- boy. He was only 17! Just a year older than her. Shit fuck shit. If that wasn’t enough, at the end of their meeting, Theo knocked against her bad side, and now it was throbbing. She had popped another painkiller to help. 

Her father had already left Wayne Enterprises, and she was left in her temporary office, straightening things out for tomorrow. She threw herself in her work, trying to forget about her embarrassment. Mr. Drake-Wayne probably thought she was a klutz and incomptent… She groaned and rested her head on the table. It wasn’t fair how attractive he was. With his silky black hair that framed his face just right, and his blue eyes… This was not happening. There was no way she was attracted to her boss. Well more like a business partner, but still. It was his company, and she was his borrowed employee.

She raised her head from in between her arms and checked the time with bleary eyes. The harsh red 12:20 binked up at her. It was time to head back to her hotel, where she would be staying for some time. She winced as she got up and jostled her ribcage. Theo had done quite a number on her this time.

As she was walking out of her office, she remembered she needed to grab her soiled shirt from Timothy’s office. She made her way up to his office, and knocked. No answer. However there was a light coming from the glass office next to his. She was just about to raise her hand to knock, when a pretty, young dark skinned woman opened the door. Aria let her hand drop, and fidgeted with the cuffs of her- Timothy’s shirt.

“Yes?” The woman spoke first, her voice golden and smooth like honey.

“Hi, I’m Aria Hale, a representative of Hale Industries. I- I was wondering if I could get my shirt from Mr. Wayne’s office,” Aria smiled, mentally bashing herself. Her lessons with her father came back to her. Strong business women did not stutter, they did not ask, they demanded. Then she realized how suspicious she sounded, even though it was the truth. A random girl who was asking to get something , a shirt of all things- from a CEO’s office was very unusual, to say the least. The woman merely raised an eyebrow.

“Tam Fox, give me a moment to ask Mr. Wayne for permission,” Tam replied, pulling out a cell. Aria really hoped he wasn’t asleep. She allowed herself to size up the woman in front of her. Miss Fox was a little taller than Aria, with medium length black hair and a petite figure. She seemed familiar, although Aria didn’t know why. 

She was lost in her thoughts, trying to figure out how she knew her, when Tam let out a scoff and hung up, muttering something like ‘rudeass Tim, jesus’. Aria held back a laugh. “ Right this way Miss Hale,” she used her thumb print on a sensor Aria hadn’t noticed, below the doorknob. She pushed the mahogany doors open and gestured for Aria to go. Aria made a beeline for her shirt which was neatly folded in a chair in front of the desk. She flashed a grateful smile at Tam, who nodded back, and left for her car, with the sound of the great doors shutting and locking mechanically behind her.

Her car was parked in an empty lot, probably because it was almost one in the morning and everyone had already gone home. She reached her beauty, a silver Mercedes Benz 300sl, which was her pride and joy. She would literally die for this car. It was decked out with all the latest tech inside but the original sleek exterior remained. It had been a gift from Theo, when she had graduated at the top of her class at Yale. She had worked hard to get to where she was. It had cost a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get here. 

Locking her doors, as soon as she got in, she started the car and screeched out of the parking lot. While driving towards her hotel, her phone chimed. Without taking her eyes off the road, she grabbed it. Taking a quick glance at it, she realized it was from her uncle, who she was going to see on Sunday. It was Friday, technically Saturday. She couldn’t wait to get away for a day and hang out with her uncle. Perks of your dad making you as independent as possible and borderline abandoning you was that you could do whatever you want. 

To Theo Hale’s eyes, Aria Hale was an adult at the ripe age of 16. Especially now that her dad was returning home to Los Angeles, where the head of Hale Industries was, and leaving his teenage daughter in the big, daunting city of Gotham. CPS would have an easy case if they found out.

Aria Hale’s biological parents didn’t want her, so she was sent into the system, where thankfully she was adopted by a young, rich couple at the age of two. Theo and Nora Hale, the owners of the relatively new Hale Industries. She had a normal childhood until age five. That was when her adoptive-mother died from sickness. Aria didn’t even know what it was, but she held her mother’s hand as she passed away. 

Nora Hale was a brilliant woman, and had always been kind to her, whereas Theo had been aloof and withdrawn most of the time. Aria had mourned silently, while Theo threw himself into work. He became even more distant, only coming home once a week, mostly sleeping at the office, leaving Aria to the maids. She got the feeling that the sight of her made him angry, because he would try to avoid her desperately. Until he didn’t. One day Theo Hale decided that Aria would continue her mother’s legacy, no matter what. 

That was when she was thrust into the real world, and got pushed until she broke, and got back up then the process started again. Her father made her take coding classes, biology lectures, chemistry courses, martial arts, and his very own private introduction to the world of business at age eight. That’s probably when the beatings started. Anytime that Theo saw something that was dissatisfactory, he hit her until she was black and blue, begging for forgiveness and mercy. Well, that was one way to enforce ‘good’ habits. After a while, she got used to the abuse, and did things to purposefully spite him during her teenage years. Hanging out with the wrong group of kids, purposefully failing classes that he knew she could pass, totalling cars, anything that would get his blood boiling was next on her to-do list. 

She shook herself out of her thoughts, as she turned into the elite hotel’s parking lot. Nothing but the best for a future CEO. She grabbed her bag and trudged up to her room. By now it was well past one in the morning, and she needed sleep so she could wake up at 8 and start vetting employees to work for her division. The lab would be finished on Tuesday which gave her three days to get everything in order so that they could run things smoothly.

She would’ve already been done but Theo wanted her to rush an encryption code, since she was the best coder the company had. That code was next to impossible to break unless you had the key, and Aria was very proud of it. It had taken her months to perfect it. She didn’t ask why Theo needed it, but she assumed it was for protection of personal files. Quite frankly, she didn’t know and didn’t care.

Aria belly flopped onto her king sized bed and groaned into the mattress. Plugging her phone in to charge and setting an alarm, Aria started to strip out of her clothes. She stopped when her hands reached the top button of Drake-Wayne’s shirt. It was a soft silk blend, and totally pajama worthy. He probably had a million other shirts right? And she didn’t feel like changing her top. Deciding to sleep in it, she yanked on a loose pair of shorts and went to bed. She fell asleep to the dull hum of traffic outside.

Aria woke to her blaring alarm, which was not pleasant . After a quick shower, she felt better and called room service to order breakfast, while starting her work. She was debating on whether or not a candidate was qualified for her personal team, when her phone started blaring. She picked it up without looking at the contact.

“Hale here,” Aria said into the receiver, chewing very unprofessionally on a waffle.

“So remember how we agreed on tomorrow? Well, something came up and I’ll be busy all of Sunday. But with that being said, why doesn’t my favorite niece come over right now? Not up for debate by the way,” came the response. Aria’s eyes widened.

“Uncle Hal!” She squealed, sitting up. 

“Well duh, don’t you have my number and shit? What, did you erase me from your life?” he accused. Hal Jordan was her uncle and possibly the coolest guy ever.

“I can come over right now?” she asked, ignoring his last statement. Fuck it, she could just save all her work for tomorrow. 

“No, that’s definitely not what I just said ” Hal droned. Aria rolled her eyes. Things could switch up so fast with him.

“Alright, alright, I’m on my way. Gimme an hour. Also, I’m picking up snacks on the way cause we totally need to watch that new movie I was telling you about. Also, I have so much to tell you,” she rambled, throwing on a lightweight hoodie and sweats. Dashing out the door, she ran down to the parking lot listening to Hal talk about how he thought scored at a bar, but she ended up being gay and interested in Carol. 

Aria let out a real laugh, and started the car towards Coast City, talking to Hal while driving. Deciding to grab a pizza, she pulled up to his apartment with a massive amount of food. 

“Hold up, I’m gonna focus on driving right now,” she said walking into the complex. 

“Shouldn’t you almost be here?” Hal complained. “And stop interrupting my story, you brat. I was telling you how Tom totally fucked me over and-” 

Aria made static noises into the phone, knowing it would piss him off. “Kshhhh— you’re breaking up— I can't hear you,” and then hung up.

When she reached his apartment with pizza and a bag of snacks in hand, she rapped on his dingy door. “Pizza delivery for Mr. Jordan,” she deepened her voice. There was a commotion on the other side, like Hal had knocked something over and then the door swung open. She was greeted by Hal with a scowl on his face which morphed into a grin when he saw her. Grabbing the pizza with one hand he hugged her with his free arm.

“ Hanging up on me like that was so not cool!” he scolded her, his voice muffled by her hair. Aria shrugged nonchalantly.

“ Lemme in, I just spent an hour driving just to see some lame old man,” she shouldered her way through his doorway and noticed with amusement that there were a bunch of papers strewn on the ground. He’d definitely knocked them over. “Old age really is rough, isn’t it?”.

Hal rolled his eyes. “I’m not even that old.” He set the food down and turned his TV on. “I’m like twice your age- almost”

“‘Almost’ being the operative word, Jordan,” Aria huffed while jumping over the back of his couch. Hal’s apartment hadn’t changed much since she had first met him. That was last year. His small one bed one bath ‘bachelor-pad’ was like a second home to her. Every inch of the place was associated with memories that Aria held close. 

The dusty Kitchen-aid mixer on top of the fridge reminded her of the first time she tried baking cookies with Hal. They didn’t even get to the baking part because for some unknown reason, the dough exploded in their face. Aria recalled that laughing so hard, she was out of breath when she looked at his flour covered face. The neon orange ugly Christmas sweater that Aria had given him as a gag-gift was draped across a chair. It hurt to look at. The picture of the two of them at Ferris Air was framed and set on the TV stand. Hal had his arm around Aria’s shoulders and was smiling up at the camera, while Aria was in motion trying to get her hair out of her face. She didn’t know why he had decided to print that specific picture out, but he did.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Aria snatched the remote from Hal, who was standing next to her and looking through the candy she had brought. As she settled into the couch, Hal looked up from his hunt and his eyes creased with worry. It was gone in a flash when he triumphantly held up a grape flavored jolly rancher. 

“I still don’t see why you like those that much. They aren’t even that good Uncle,” Aria said with disdain while loading up a movie.

“ You just don’t have any taste. Twizzlers taste like shit, and you’re in love with them,” he accused, plopping down into his recliner.

“Tough talk for some who likes pineapples on pizza,” Aria snarked back. “Your opinion is invalid.”

“ Did I just hear you disrespect Haiwaiian pizza?” Hal drawled, quirking up an eyebrow.

“Potentially. What are you gonna do about it?” she taunted, reaching forward to throw a cheeto at him. Hal smacked it out of the air and took the jolly-rancher out of his mouth. Aria tensed, anticipating what was about to come next. Was he actually going to-

She yelped as she dodged the half eaten candy thrown at her, nearly falling on her head.

“What- What the- ” She spluttered. “ What if that got in my hair?” Hal just laughed at her and her near-death experience. “I’m so getting you back for that,” she sullenly promised, looking at him. Her uncle grinned up at her.

“Don’t disrespect Hawaiian pizza ever again,” He shot her a peace sign. Aria just sighed, shaking her head. Sometimes her uncle was insufferable, but he was still one of her best friends. He had always been there for her, for as long as she had known him. Then the movie started and Aria told Hal to shut up and pay attention. She let herself get lost in the movie and admired the stunning graphics, too far engrossed in that to notice that her eyes were getting heavy.

Aria opened her bleary eyes slowly. She was still curled up on the couch. A blanket was thrown over her. Uncle’s house her mind supplied. With a shock, she realized she’d fallen asleep during the movie, which was still playing in the background. Sure, she was stressed out from the project with Wayne Tech but this never happened. She would have to apologize to Hal for falling asleep on him.

Her eyes flicked to the recliner but he wasn’t there. That’s when she heard a raised voice coming from another room. She strained to hear it.

“-don’t care! Why the fuck am I ‘unfit’ for the job?” A pause. “Because of my history with him? Are you kidding? My history is exactly why I should be out there finding him!” The voice got louder which meant he was coming back into the main room. “ I can’t believe this. Sorry Gardner, I’m gonna have to call you back later. Preferably when the guardians get their head out of their ass” He hung up and swore.

Oh shit. Aria had seen Hal annoyed, but that was nothing compared to this. He was livid, and her only thought was that she was glad it wasn’t at her. Slowly sitting up, she rubbed at her eyes and looked at Hal. She didn’t know what he was talking about, but it seemed to be very important to him. He was too stiff and strained, body trembling with too much restrained fury for it to be normal.

“Uncle Hal?” she started. His eyes snapped up to meet hers. Was it just her, or were his eyes just glowing green? “Is everything okay?” she hesitantly asked. 

“Everything is fine,” He shrugged. “Just some stuff with work, nothing that won’t be resolved soon.” His tone commanded her to drop it. 

“Oh, uh, that sucks,” she said awkwardly, not knowing whether to make him elaborate or let it go. He seemed pretty uncomfortable talking about it, and she didn’t want to make him any more mad then he already was. Moving on it was. “Anyways, sorry for falling asleep. I really didn’t mean to.”

Hal’s eyes softened. “It’s okay Aria. You deserved that sleep. You work too hard.”

“Oh yeah! Hale Industries scored a partnership with one of the biggest companies ever! I’m staying behind to help our merge for the project.” She exclaimed, trying to change the subject. “You’ll never guess who.” 

“I honestly have no clue. It could be anyone,” her uncle mused, heading to the kitchen and filling up a glass of water. All traces of anger had seemed to have left him, but Aria knew him too well to fall for that. But it was a topic for another time.

Puffing out her chest, she proudly said “Wayne Tech.”

She didn’t know how Hal would react but choking on his water wasn’t it. She threw the blanket off and rushed over to swat his back. Once his hacking subsided, he stared at her. It was alarming, to say the least. Aria started to speak up but he cut her off.

“You’re in Gotham?” he asked calmly, too calmly.

“Yeah, I will be for the next couple of months,” Aria said defensively. “Is something wrong?”

“You’re staying in Gotham for two months? Is Theo going to be with you?” he demanded, spitting out Theo’s name like it burned him. She didn’t tell him about the abuse, only the abandonment. Like that made it any better since Hal still hated him. Ironic because Theo didn’t even know about Hal.

“Uh, no?” she tried to be firm but it came out like a question. Shit. “It might not be for as long as two months, I just need to get business finished up…”

Hal sighed and pinched his nose. “Aria, I know you can take care of yourself, but Gotham is a fucked up place. It’s not safe for someone your age to be alone. There are… bad people there,” he said, looking away.

“Hal, I‘ll be fine. I know self defense and I’ll be careful,” Aria bristled. She got that he cared about her, but she’d been on her own for a while now. She was capable of looking after herself. Plus it’s not like she was sightseeing in Gotham. She was there for work and the only two places she would be was probably Wayne Tech and her hotel.

“I know you can, it’s just-“ Hal looked around helplessly “ Listen, I’m not trying to - shit I don’t even know. You shouldn’t have to do all that for yourself.” 

Usually Aria would go off at somebody saying that to her. Who were they to tell her what she should and shouldn’t do? But this wasn’t just anyone, it was her uncle Hal. She could tell he was genuinely worried about her. She exhaled, releasing the anger that she felt.

“Uncle, I’ll be fine,” she smiled. It was small but genuine. “If you want, I’ll call you everyday or text you or something.” 

“That’d be good, but still…” He trailed off. Aria waited for him to continue. “I’d feel better if there was someone else with you. I have a … friend in Gotham. I could see if he’d let you stay at his place.” 

“Uncle Hal, I swear I’ll be fine. Cross my heart and hope to die,” she said. After seeing Hal’s face she hurried to correct herself. “Wait, not the die part.”

Hal shook his head and suddenly he was hugging her. She wrapped her arms around him after a moment of hesitation.

He kissed her head and murmured a soft “You’re my family. You’d better be safe and call me everyday, you hear? I’d fucking kill you if you died.” 

She laughed into his neck. She didn’t deserve his love. He’d accepted her when she was at her worst. Like the father she’d never had. Aria felt tears well up in her eyes. She was so lucky to have Hal Jordan.

“I will. I love you Uncle,” she whispered back, reveling in the embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope this isn't too wattpad esque! again constructive criticism is always appreciated!! also can we just talk about how cool hal jordan is like the man is literally one of the most powerful beings alive. he could probs go toe toe w superman. he can't die, he's made of will, shit is insane! plus his personality is so fun like asldhwmd all green lanterns are so cool imagine being an intergalactic space cop id be so jealous


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